How to write an epic poem
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit Are you interested in writing poetry, but have never found the right outlet for your creativity? Do you want to join the ranks of Homer and Hesiod? Perhaps you want to write an epic poem. Steps Read some epic poetry . After all, you're doing this to be a part of the tradition! An epic poet should at least have read Homer. Reading epics will give you a good sense of what the epic is all about. It will also inspire you to write your own epic, read more epics, and become a sea-faring hero. Begin with a hero. Epic poetry always follows the adventures of a hero. Take, for instance, Homer's Odysseus, Virgil's Aeneas, Gilgamesh, or Beowulf. You are probably quite familiar with heroic traits, like bravery, justic, and virtue. In Classical epics, heroes also tend to be hubristic and callous. Those kinds of flaws make your hero interesting. Plot out your epic journey. What challenges will your hero face, and why? Your hero might be on a quest to find something, a quest to save someone, a long voyage home from a distant war, or s/he might even be in the thick of the war itself. Think of twists and turns and complications that thicken this journey. You'll find, in the Classics, that jealous and quick-tempered gods play just as large a part in screwing up the plot as the hero's own flaws. Invoke the muses. Now you're ready to start writing your epic! This part is optional (as it is a feature of Graeco-Roman epic poetry), but if you want your epic to have that Classical form, you should begin with an invocation to the muse. "Sing to me, o muse, of..." is an archetypical invocation. The muses were goddesses, in Classical mythology, who inspired writers. There was a patron muse of every poetic style. The muse who inspired the epics was Calliope. Write! This is the fun part. You can write your poem in any form, with or without metre. Nobody should tell you what form your writing should take. If you wish to write in the style of Homer, Virgil, Hesiod, and the other Classical poets, the metre they used was dactylic hexameter, or lines comprised of six dactyls (another article here should be able to help you with metre). Ancient Greek and Latin poetry did not rhyme, and yours doesn't have to either. Name your work. Epics are almost always named after the hero. The Odyssey is named after Odysseus, the Aeneid after Aeneas, the Epic of Gilgamesh after Gilgamesh. Sometimes, it is named after a vessel, like the Argonautica, but heroic epics mostly take their name from the hero. The English language does not have a suffix that you can add to a name to indicate topicality, so it might make less sense for you to call your work 'the Captain Jimmy-iad," but you could take a leaf out of Medieval poetry and call it 'the Song of X,' or 'The Tale of X.' Your title has to invoke the grandeur of your poem. Invoke away. Publish your work. This is crucial if you want to become a household name. If you are even half as successful as Ovid, you will likely inspire writers for at least a few centuries. You might have trouble getting published by a mainstream house, as they are usually after novels, but there are many resources online for you, including print-on-demand self-publishing that can be anywhere from cheap to free. Tips Remember that epic poems are long. You can't write ten short verses about someone and call it an epic; epics are so long that you might even want to divide yours into different books. Be prepared to spend a lot of (satisfying) time on your epic. Avoid being emotional. Epic poems represent heroes, brave and cunning people who don't give in to their emotions. Love and desire are a part of what tests heroes, of course, but a real hero always puts duty over emotion. In fact, epics usually relate important messages about how common people may act like heroes, and it's no coincidence that the wrath of Achilles has such a negative effect on the Achaeans. Avoid being realistic. Let loose! This is a grand story about heroic actions, fickle gods, fantastic monsters, and hostile landscapes. Your story is not real, and you should put no effort into convincing people that it could happen. Warnings People may laugh at you. If they do, just remember that, three hundred years down the road, it's your bust that artisans will be crafting from marble, and not theirs. See also * Epic poetry * How to Become a Published Poet --- Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on "How to Write an Epic Poem". All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA-2.5 license. Category:How-to articles Category:Imported, updated, or created in 2011 Category:WikiHow articles